The Sea of Void

August 23, 2023(18+) 20 minutes left before the clock struck noon time. Beads of sweat formed lightly in my forehead. The wringing in my head hasn’t subsided in a bit. With a little to nothing of sleep that day, I took an exam for my Reinforced Concrete subject. I studied earnestly from 6:00 pm after my afternoon shift in a cafeteria part-time job to 3-4:00 am while battling the sleepiness. Strange. When the insomnia strikes at my tiresome days, I felt like dying or floating in steaming air and then put in an iced bath when I jog from 4:00 am to clear my head. This mischievous flaw subsided during my exam days. I got tired and sleepy all day. It’s like I was struck by a jinx called laziness. “Da Silva!” A loud thud woke me up from reality. The Professor Benig from a respected construction firm has almost hit me with an eraser in a swift motion. Startled and distracted, I caught a hiccup while the urge to shout and ask Professor Benig why he would do such thing has kept me morbid in my place. “Have you gone senile that you forgot you’re taking an exam in my presence? If you won’t take this seriously go home already.” He hissed at me and continued the verbal abuse for 10 minutes that made the whole class turned their attention to me. I was stoned in my position. Feeling the shame now had me stand and bow to apologize for disturbing the whole class. A loss of 10 minutes had the Professor extended the exam time for 20 more minutes. I held back a tear after realizing that I only answered half of the questions. 4 more situational problems with 5 items each required to answer the missing data. In the end, I couldn’t even finish what’s on my plate. I passed the unfinished paper to the front feeling unaccomplished and with a throbbing head. I quickly got my bag to go out and pray that my parents won’t be mad at me after this. I tried calling Dad from his private number. It’s been ringing for 2 minutes and until now he’s still not answering. My father is a respected Lawyer and also a Dean of the College of Law in my University. He is really famous for solving big cases and his appearance in the senate for appraising and proposing bills for the poor and mass. He’s a patriotic man in my eyes and my only reason to continue this Civil Engineering course. I immediately hurried running down the stairs since it is not allowed to run in the corridor. I put back my books and reviewers in my locker for a bit and ran back again to the direction of Dads office. I wanted to lunch with him and ask about where we should go this weekend. I wanted to ask him if we could go fishing in the lake again since old men playing chess in the mini park talked about the catfish that they have caught during these dog days in the lake were plentiful and I wanted to try catching them too. I smiled at that thought. There is no better feeling in the world than to catch your own fish and then fry or grill it afterwards fulfilling a sense of success. I am nearing Dads office and I passed through few known professors and bow to them. I tried twisting the door knob but it is lock. I saw a utility man exiting from an archive office and immediately asked him. “Excuse me? Have you seen Attorney Da Silva enter his office?” “Oh hello, you’re the daughter of attorney yes?” He asked me back. I nodded at his question. “He entered his office 45 minutes ago with one of his scholar. Do you know, the boy in the soccer club?” I nodded again in his question. “Is that so? Well I guess I need to surprise him a little bit. Thanks for answering.” I left a smile and returned in front of the door again. I remembered having a spare key that he once lends me in case of emergency. I quickly rummage the insides of my bag. Gotcha! I quickly inserted the key to the key hole slowly. Afraid of being caught for the surprise, I made sure I made a little noise when twisting the knob. A great success came afterward. I tip-toed advancing to the center of his office. I saw a tall figure with his shadow across the blinds. There is also a noise I don’t even know existed even without choking from the bones of the fish. It was all foreign. The tall figure resembles my Dad without his coat and only his long sleeve polo has been tucked to his elbow. There is also a figure under him. Kneeling with his pants off and the tall figure seems to be like him half naked too. I saw him gagging in a piece of meat. I was startled. Shocked to the core and my eyes enlarge of this horrendous discovery. They didn’t seem to acknowledge my presence while here I am, overwhelmed by a thousand emotions. “. . . dad?” I was surprised that a questioning voice escaped my mouth. It was suffocating. The two men seem to be frozen in their places. The tall figure turns his head towards me with his mouth half open. A lump in my throat has been forming little by little and it brings an icky feeling towards me. I stepped a step backwards not knowing what to do at that time. The man under him was alarmed. He immediately fixed his pants and turn his back on me thinking that I could just forgot his face and his nasty acts. Overwhelmed by disgust, I ranaway as soon as the nasty act registered in my brain.